500 signatures reached
To: Sandwell MBC and Sandwell Leisure Trust
Save Albright Mosaic Mural at Langley Baths, Oldbury from demolition
Sandwell residents are concerned about a beautiful mosaic in a closed public swimming baths following the delivery of the Sandwell Aquatics Centre, used for the Commonwealth Games.
It is a magnificent 60-year-old mosaic made by pupils as part of the CSE Art Design coursework. It’s made up of 30,000 individual tiles and was unveiled on 12 September 1969 to coincide with the reopening of the baths after repair work. 320 Albright boys were involved in making it as the old stage was bricked up and the council wanted something to cover the wall. Cllr Peter Coleman said at the time ‘Such a high standard of work deserves pride of place on housing estates, in public baths and other places.
We want the Council to preserve a piece of artwork which is a monument to the people of Sandwell who made it, the industrial working lives of the people of the area, and the generations that have swam and have memories of the mosaic.
Why is this important?
It is a link to industrial heritage of the region of Oldbury, its growth and the development of the housing, green spaces and community supported by Albright & Wilson (now Solvay and still trading in Oldbury).
Albright and Wilson were the largest employer in the area in its heyday, and they link back to the mid-1850s. They were quakers and invested in their workers in the local area for 100’s of years.
The mosaic serves as a tribute to our Industrial and Educational heritage and for the ex-pupils of Albright High school who made it for their D T studies with their teacher Mr Frost. There are generations of swimmers who used Langley baths too, that want it to remain in the public eye for future generations of the area.
